Sculpture
Overload
Overload, aluminum strapping, dimensions variable, 2023
Designed to be worn, this sculptural helmet can barely be balanced on the head. Referencing the goddess Athena’s warrior helmet, The Bride of Frankenstein, and electro shock treatment, Overload depicts feminine burnout.
The Soul is Alight
The Soul is Alight, blue vellum, light, wire, 4” x 6”
Sparrow Wing, watercolor on vellum,, light, wire, 4” x 5”
Orange Feathers, colored vellum, t-pins, 18” x 6” x 2”
Flight Feathers, watercolor on vellum, copper wire, 2” x 10”. x 10”,
Japanese Knotweed, digital collage on vellum, wire, 8” x 10” x 4”
A bird’s wing is a marvel of pattern, grace, and engineering. As a child I collected feathers from the ground, unzipping and zipping the barbs along the vane, feeling the smooth ridges separate and reintegrate.
A bird is a metaphor for the soul. It flutters, alights, spins, and lands.
Shadow
Shadow, kinetic shadow puppet, card stock, wood, wire, 38” x 24” x 4”, 2020
Shadow, kinetic shadow puppet, card stock, wood, wire, 38” x 24” x 4”, 2020
The Cooper’s Hawk inhabits the local woods and preys on other birds. This dark shadow opens and closes its wings, its shadow projected on a screen.
Passerine
Presence by Absence
On my walks through Thorndike Field in East Arlington, I often hear the busy chirping of the red headed house finches from the thorny branches of the wide rose thicket. Two invasive species, both colonizers of sorts, both ordinary, terrible, and beautiful in their own right.
During late winter I stopped hearing them. I had read about the decline in the songbird population due to ingestion of neonicotinoids on their annual migrations. Consuming seeds or bugs from pesticide laden fields causes the tiny birds’ metabolisms to speed up and their appetites to dwindle. They drop from the sky. I felt this in the absence of bird calls in the fall.
Inspired by a vivid dream, I drew, embossed, cut and folded 1,600 aluminum feathers, the number of feathers on a songbird (passerine), and attached each one to a string that hung from a board, creating the shape of a bird ascending to the sky.
Passerine, aluminum tooling foil, crochet string, foam, lead, 24” x48” x 72”, 2021
Passerine Feathers, 36” x 48”, 1,600 aluminum feathers, crochet string, push pins, post-its, cork board, 2019